When it comes to the current controversy over antibiotic use on farm animals, milk is in a special category.

Lactating cows, unlike hogs, cattle or chickens that are raised for their meat, don't receive antibiotics unless they are actually sick. That's because drug residues immediately appear in the cow's milk — a violation of food safety rules.

Milk shipments are tested for six of the most widely used antibiotics, and any truckload that tests positive is rejected. So when cows are treated, farmers discard their milk for several days until the residues disappear.

Say cheese! That’s what Columbia-based Nanova Biomaterials Incorporated is doing after the Food and Drug Administration approved their first product, a dental varnish, in October. Missouri Business Alert’s Kaitlin Rounds and Yizhu Wang report on the company and its plans for growth.

Missouri residents who have exhausted conventional disease cures will have access to experimental drugs under legislation signed on Monday by Gov. Jay Nixon.

The so-called Right to Try legislation gives patients and their doctors the ability to procure drugs that have yet to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration if the pharmaceutical manufacturer agrees to provide the product.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has vetoed legislation barring people younger than 18 from buying electronic cigarettes while also exempting the nicotine products from other tobacco sales restrictions.

Nixon called the Senate bill a "thinly disguised and cynical attempt" to exempt e-cigarettes from the state's 17 cent-per-pack cigarette tax as well as further public health restrictions. His rejection on Monday fell on the deadline for the governor take action on bills passed by state lawmakers earlier this year.

Seventy-five members of Congress, including Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, are asking the Food and Drug Administration to allow further comment on sweeping food safety rules that farmers say could drive them out of business.

New food safety regulations are about to be announced by the Food and Drug Administration. These regulations—covering everything from sanitation to record-keeping—are part of the Food Safety and Modernization Act, which became law two years ago. While the produce and meat industries get the lion’s share of attention, commodity grains now fall under the FDA’s watch.

Like the old joke about restaurant complaints (“The food is awful, and the portions are so small!”), kids across the country are complaining their school lunches have too many fruits and vegetables, and they’re leaving lunch hungry.

Many Missouri hospitals are reporting shortages of necessary pharmaceutical drugs. The Missouri Hospital Association says such shortages are keeping hospitals from effectively delivering care in a safe and timely way to its patients.